HALI team member, Miss Asha Makweta with her poster during the Iringa
March for Elephants.

Could we live in a world without
elephants? That might be an easier
question to answer if elephants are not part of your life, your landscape, or
your culture. But in Tanzania and
throughout Africa, elephants (tembo
or ndovu in Kiswahli) are very much
part of day-to-day life. Ecological engineers, they prune our
forests, disperse seeds and plant trees, blaze trails and make firebreaks, occasionally
eat from our gardens, and grace the labels of our favorite beers. But a world without elephants may soon become
a reality without change, change that the Wildlife Connection and
other conservation groups are working to achieve.

Wildlife Connection is a non-governmental
organization in Pawaga and Idodi Divisions in Iringa Rural District. On
4 October 2013, the NGO organized the local event for the March for Elephants campaign in Iringa town to show their compassion for elephants and opposition to the enormous killing and destruction of elephants in Southern Tanzania’s protected areas, including Ruaha National Park and MBOMIPA Wildlife Management Area. Many stakeholders
were invited to this special event in Iringa, and as part of the campaign, 40 other big cities around
the world held similar marches.

The HALI project was invited to the march, as
one of the stakeholders dealing with health for animals, both domestic and wild.
Project Coordinator, Dr. Goodluck Paul and other staff including Asha Makweta,
Elizabeth Komba and Amani Zacharia joined other stakeholders from Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS), Udzungwa Elephant Project (UEP), Southern Tanzania
Protected Area Network (SPANEST), Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB), Tanzania Association
for Tour Operators (TATO) and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) to fight against
the brutality against elephants.

Some statistics, shared by the
guest of honor, Shadow Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Mr. Peter
Msigwa show that elephant poaching is a big threat to these animals, and is responsible
for a massive decrease in elephants numbers from 2,000,000 in 1971 to 130,000
today, with major social, ecological and economic impacts. In a nutshell, a
total of 33,000 elephants were killed from 2010 to 2013 in Tanzania, and if
this rate of poaching increases or is sustained, in seven years elephants will be
locally extinct in Tanzania, a disaster to the country economy, which depends heavily
on wildlife and safari tourism and a devastating blow to our culture which has
shared this landscape with elephants since the dawn of human history.

These statistics puzzled the HALI staff and our team is now working to prepare
posters and work to raise awareness of these issues, and to share their concerns about elephants and wildlife, their health, ecology, and
survival.

*Alphonce Msigwa is a wildlife professional, journalist and conservation enthusiast working with the HALI project on the USAID-funded Feed the Future Livestock Innovation Lab Collaborative Research Support Program project. He has published over 30 articles in Tanzania wildlife magazines and journals, and looks forward to contributing more to the HALI blog, especially on livelihood and conservation issues.

HALI Project

The Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement (HALI) project works with local stakeholders to investigate health at the human-animal-environment interface in Tanzania.

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HALI is supported by grant funding, awards, and through the contributions of our network of dedicated volunteers and team members. To ensure sustainability of our programs and to keep our talented teams and activities funded, HALI relies upon philanthropic support from private donors. Please consider supporting the HALI project by visiting our donation center at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center.